magazinesfromthepastfandomcom-20200214-history
Amiga CD32 Gamer Issue 1
This magazine was likely released in March 1994 and was priced at £3.99. A free CD was attached. Regulars Contents - 1 page (2) Competition - 1 page (10) On the Disc Donk! - The Samurai Duck, Nick Faldo's Championship Golf - page 5 Alfred Chicken, D/Generation, Trolls - page 6 Pinball Fantasies - page 7 Public Domain and Shareware games - pages 7-8 News Editorial: Welcome to the Revolution - Stuart Wynne - page 9 Monitor Man Murdered!: ELSPA drop character weeks after being unveiled. - page 9 *Companies: ELSPA, Nintendo, Acclaim, Cyberdreams *People: Patrick Ketchum (Cyberdreams), Jon Hare (Sensible Software) CD32 Coin-Ops!: Namco to convert arcade games to CD32? - page 9 *Companies: Namco *Games: Ridge Racer, Starblade CD32 Rising: CD game sales on the rise - page 9 *Games: Cannon Fodder, Syndicate, Liberation: Captive II, Frontier: Elite II *People: David Braben New CD32 Pack! - page 9 *Microcosm, The Chaos Engine Charts - page 9 #Liberation: Captive II #The Labyrinth of Time #Sensible Soccer: European Champions #Seek & Destroy #Zool #Pirates! Gold #Pinball Fantasies #Whale's Voyage #Nick Faldo's Championship Golf #Fire Force Features Full Motion Video - Jason Holborn - 3 pages (13-15) *Hardware: CD32 :We all know that the CD32 can play some great games, but did you know that it can play movies as well? Jason Holborn gets all square-eyed with Commodore's new FMV module. Pleasant Hunting: Interview with Commodore's MD David Pleasance - Stuart Wynne - 2 pages (16-17) *People (Q&A): David Pleasance (Commodore) *Companies: Commodore *Hardware: CD32 Flying High - Dave Westley - 3 pages (55-57) :Last year Ocean gave DiD a cool one million pounds to sign them up until 1995. Already, it looks like money well spent with TFX ''effortlessly dominating the PC charts, ''Inferno ''due soon, and CD32 versions already begun. Dave Westley spoke to Charles Wallace and Shaun Hollywood about their plans. *People (Q&A): Charles Wallace (DiD), Shaun Hollywood (DID) *Games: TFX: Tactical Fighter Experiment, Inferno Cutting Edge - Jason Holborn - 4 pages (58-61) *Hardware: CD32 :Lurking inside your CD32 are some of the most advanced electronics ever to grace a games console. With scalpel in hand, Jason Holborn dissects his CD32. Nightmare Dreams - Stuart Wynne - 2 pages (62-63) :Most video games with aspirations to horrify usually only cause giggles. A game by H.R. Giger is, however, a rather different matter. Stuart Wynne pays a visit to the Swiss surrealist to ask why. *People (Q&A): H.R. Giger *Games: Darkseed Previews: Coming to a CD32 near you... - 3 pages (64-66) Reviews Games - Scores out of 10 The Lost Vikings : ''The Lost Vikings is without a doubt a classic, which makes it (relatively) easy to forgive the fact this is a straight port of the A500 game entirely lacking CD32 upgrading. If you fancy a game to test both reactions and brain, plus giving your sense of humour a good working out, this is the one for you. Alfred Chicken :If chickens aren't your thing, this and a basic lack of originality might put you off. Otherwise, Alfred is cautiously recommended as among the best of the CD32 platformers. Zool :Enhanced for the A1200 chipset, Zool ''may look even brighter and more cheerful than any Mega Drive game ever could, but playability is painfully weak. Clever puzzles, sophisticated level maps and imaginative power-ups are conspicuous by their absence. ''Zool ''admittedly has plenty of moves - a sliding attack, spin attack and even a gun - but this matters little when so much of the gameplay is simply a painstaking search for the exit. Microcosm :From the moment CD32 Gamer started, this was the game we were waiting for to show just what CD32 can do. This it does, but I had hoped it would be rather more enjoyable to play... Mean Arenas : However well presented this game is, it is no more than a fast, reasonably adequate conversion of everyone's favourite dot munching game. The arenas are largish, the multitude of baddies well animated and varied, and there's plenty of gunfire and nuclear explosions to distract you from the blisteringly unoriginality of this game, but ''Pacman ''it is, and if that's your thing, you'll love this. Fire Force : This kind of fast(ish) action blaster depends entirely upon good control, so that you can instinctively move, shoot or throw a grenade without having to think. Here, it's like Russian roulette what movement you perform, and even if you forgive the programmers their dire graphics, you're unlikely to play long enough to see past level 2. A shocker. D/Generation : It's completely absorbing and the most addictive and enjoyable game I've played for ages. Like so many of the current CD32 releases, it doesn't begin to explore the machine's potential, but this is still an excellent, original game that deserves a whole new fanbase in this faultless adaptation. An absolute must buy, and my favourite CD32 game bar none. Seek & Destroy : This all makes the game fairly addictive, especially with the promise of those later landscapes, and at a budget price of £15 could certainly be recommended. As it is, the simplistic graphics and lack of gameplay variety make this a somewhat more questionable full-price purchase. Fly Harder : The original ''Thrust ''was a classic, brilliantly original and playable. ''Fly Harder looks prettier, but with just eight levels starts tough and soon gets murderously difficult. If you fancy a challenge take a look, but why couldn't the programmers provide more levels? Overkill : On the positive side, the strength of Defender is such that even a poor clone is very playable. The sense of inertia as you switch your direction of travel is excellent, power-ups are numerous and the action is suitablt frantic. On later levels, the CD32's power is used to animate some impressive aliens and overall this has kept me coming back to it far more than many more sophisticated games. Lunar-C : Lunar-C isn't exactly bad, it's just entirely lacking the graphical flourishes which good games use to disguise unoriginal beginnings with new excitement. Liberation: Captive II : If you've got a CD32, Liberation is virtually an essential purchase. It is, however, a game which take time to get into. Fortunately, once you're hooked the first CD32 specific game has more than enough depth to keep you occupied while you await the next ones. Alien Breed: Special Edition : If you've always wanted to revisit the Nostromo with some heavy, heavy firepower and a couple more Aliens to blast, then this is worth a look - just don't expect much in the way of originality. Qwak : I doubt many people will be able to resist Qwak's simple playability and if you've got a friend to join it's practically an essential purchase. Project-X : This is no mould-breaker, but as a classy refinement of an ancient game-type it'll keep you occupied while Psygnosis struggle to add gameplay to their ground-breaking graphics. F17 Challenge : If you fancy whizzing around tracks without having to think too much, this is the one to get. But Mansell, with racing lines and tuition guides, offers much more in the way of long term value. Castles II: Siege & Conquest : At first I was sure I was missing something, and made every effort to find something to engage my interest, but, whilst I commend the effort and authenticity of this product, I feel its mainstream potential has been destroyed by poor programming (it reall is unacceptably slow) and a lack of any real adrenaline pumping excitement. Whale's Voyage : This is an atmospheric, original and intriguing game with enough depth to while away a great many late nights. Labyrinth of Time, The : There are come nicely varied problems to overcome, some enjoyably sophisticated, but there's a lot of wandering about too. Approach with caution. Nigel Mansell's World Championship : Nigel Mansell's World Championship is a playable, thorough simulation, which although not challenging to any of the Big Boys like PC Indycar Racing is a welcome release on CD32, guaranteed to please most race fans. Sensible Soccer: European Champions : Sensible Soccer is still the most addictive football game around, its sheer playability easily overcoming the handicap of unspectacular visuals. Invite your mates round, plug in a couple of joysticks and play till you drop. Seven Gates of Jambala, The : I'd like to state that this is the worst game I've seen in my life, bar none, and by some considerable margin. Chambers of Shaolin : Imagine a fighting game that is so bad, it's unimaginable. You've imagined Chambers of Shaolin. Pirates! Gold : If the scenario appeals, Pirates has more than enough depth to keep you playing for months and months. Morph : It's simple, but incredibly tough, and whilst fast platform action this ain't, if you fancy something unique with bags of playability, this is it. John Barnes European Football : This is without doubt, one of the worst football sims I've ever played, which despite good intentions, is crippled by a terrible screen update and generally poor graphics, besides deserving relegation for excruciatingly bad gameplay. Sleepwalker : For the most part it's great stuff, but it's also very tough and the control system is not as precise as it should be, making a difficult game almost unplayable at times. Dennis : Everything in this game is unoriginal and uninspired, failing to match up to even the poorer CD32 platformers. The seemingly wanton apathy of the game designers, evident in every lazy programming technique and lacklustre graphic, is vividly communicated to the player, as you run around without any real sense of interaction. Arabian Nights : This is great fun, with a superb front end to make it instantly playable for everyone, and whilst it's basically identical to its A500 counterpart, those who haven't previously sampled its engaging gameplay could do much worse than this. Trolls : Whilst the minute, well animated sprites are impressive, the minimal variety and simplistic gameplay won't keep anyone above the age of five entertained for more than an hour or so. Cute they may be, but you won't enjoy their antics for long. Battle Chess : Eventually, the humour obviously palls and you'll probably switch to the standard, overhead view cheesboard, but as an introduction to quite possibly the best board game ever Battle Chess remains hard to beat. International Karate+ : Quite why a 32-bit conversion of an 8-bit game should be slower rather than faster than the original is a less enjoyable mystery. The best that can be said is that if you persevere, there is still a classic game of sorts in there and for the moment competition is weak. Pinball Fantasies : Pinball fans will love it, and even sceptics are likely to be won over by the glitzy presentation and fun multi-player option. James Pond 2: Robocod : For those new to the scene, this is far and away the best platformer available for your CD32, and whilst I wouldn't put Robocod up there with Mario on the SNES, I'd certainly rate this as on a par with Sega's Sonic. This is a beautifully presented, very enjoyable game and every CD32 owner should have this in their (small) collection. Deep Core : Since gameplay consists of going from one side of the level to the other, I'd have to say even the woeful Fire Force offers more variety in the way of gameplay. There's very little here to tempt noivce Amiga buffs, and I should hope veterans will know better. Bubba 'n' Stix : The graphics throughout are excellent, both well drawn and imaginitive, particularly the host of strange creatures that wander around and all in all, this is one of the best platformers around. Chuck Rock : If you've always wondered what the fuss has been about over this game, take a look, but don't expect anything too impressive. Wing Commander : The game plays quite well, but combat is somewhat simplistic and it all looks rather dated. Oscar : Whatever the graphic style, gameplay is a simplistic hunt around a multi-directionally scrolling platform maze. If you're the patient sort, there's plenty of challenge here, but for sheer playability Oscar is much less impressive than it at first looks. Dangerous Streets : There's also too few frames of animation, movement is too fast and control is lousy. Whoever put this in the CD32 pack either has a complete contempt for gamers, or is in the paid employ of Sega. Diggers : If you've the patience, there's a big game here. But personally I found it a poor second to Lemmings with only a brilliantly atmospheric soundtrack makign use of the CD32. Nick Faldo's Championship Golf : Nick Faldo's Championship Golf will keep you playing (and improving) for absolutely ages, and with expansion discs of other courses in the pipeline this is difficult to resist. Movies (Video CD) - Scores out of 5 CD32 Gamer Guide Liberation: Captive II - 3 pages (52-54) Adverts TFX: Tactical Fighter Experiment - PC, Amiga 1200, CD32 - Ocean - 1 page (3) Lamborghini American Challenge - Amiga, CD32, PC - Titus - 1 page (11) Super Gamer Issue 1 - 1 page (12) Trolls, Dangerous Streets, Summer Olympix, Whale's Voyage, Surf Ninjas - CD32 - Flair Software - 1 page (67) Nick Faldo's Championship Golf - CD32 - Grandslam - 1 page (68) Other Credits Designer/Assistant Editor :Mark Wynne Contributing Writers :David Westley, Jason Holborn, Phil King Publisher :Richard Monteiro Issue Index Category:Contains CD32 Reviews Category:Contains Film Reviews Category:Magazines released in 1994